The thing with Oblivion was all the waypoints were like "oh here's another cave" "oh here's another fort." Everything I've run into exploring in Fallout is unique and makes sense, a few ones near the beginning I've found that I thought were neat were:

That's true until you really start exploring the DC area. You'll get sick of going through subway tunnels real quick.

Probably, I've mainly been around the outskirts thus far.

I got this a couple of days ago and have been playing the hell out of it, and still have a lot to explore. I created an Asian female character, though I tweaked her face a bit and she doesn't really look to asian anymore... oh well! Right now she's at level 7... I've been focusing skill advancement on small guns, speech, repair, sneak, and lockpick (which is still too low, only 45 so I can't even attempt the average locks). I think my next perk will be the one that gives you 2 points for reading a book instead of 1.

I have a TON of areas left to explore... most of my game has been in the area between Vault 101/Megaton, and the GNR station in DC - right now I'm headed up to Minefield for Moira. Playing a good character, so I already diffused the bomb at Megaton and killed the guy that wanted me to blow it up. I really need to find a town with a better weapons dealer though, Moira never has enough ammo!

Playing on PS3, only had 1 glitch that I know of, the GOAT Test. No lockups yet, with play sessions of around 4 hours sometimes. I'll probably be getting Resistance 2 today as well, which means 3!! fantastic games to divide time between.

I also had Moria run out of caps. I assume I have to buy something, or do they replenish at some point?

Is there a way to know how many hours I've played? Most RPGs have that feature. isn't it?

Having never played a Fallout game before, I wasn't quite sure how much I would like this but I gave it a shot anyway. Well... my copy finally arrived on Saturday and it basically consumed my entire weekend. I just couldn't get enough of this game. If not for work, I'm sure I'd be playing right now.

I skipped a lot of the initial quests and just started wandering around after leaving Megaton for the first time. I'm currently at level 7 but I'm just now getting to the initial quests (delivering the letter and going to the minefield).

It seems like a lot of people are having problems with ammo but I have plenty of it (and I've never had to buy any). Go figure. My main problem is I want to take everything I find, but as of now I can only carry 220 pounds. It's like a sickness! I have the hardest time just leaving perfectly good items lying around. I think I have at least 3 or 4 toolboxes/lockers/boxes around the map where I've hoarded hundreds of pounds of stuff in case I ever need it.

I pick up everything as well...I have quite a collection of coffee cups, tin cans, and shot glasses at any given time.

so, what's the fastest way to level up?
I'm close to level 3, but I've spent most of my time talking to people

Quick way to level up is to go exploring the world and killing bad guys. I've read a few tips such as, when you come across someone easy to kill, pause and raise the difficulty to Hard, and kill the guy, reaping the rewards of extra XP, then bring the difficulty back down.

Also, hacking computers that unlock doors and safes, but not actually unlocking them from the computer, but by picking the lock. Double the XP!

I believe it says it on the saved game screen.

I'd never do either of those. Feels like cheating, and takes the fun away.

I never changed the difficulty but I definitely did both for locks. Hacking the computer then picking the lock rather than using the computer to unlock it. Double the XP plus there are achievements for 50 of each computer hacking and lock picking.

I wouldn't change the difficulty, but the hacking/lockpicking thing seems reasonable. The difficult part of hacking is getting to the screen that would allow you to unlock the door, so technically you would be getting experience in hacking.

Not sure why someone would put points into both lockpick and science... Seems better to pick one or the other.

There are a lot of doors to unlock that don't have computer terminals. And there are a lot of computers that do things other than unlocking doors. So both are good to have.

Ya, I'm low level like 5 or 6, and I've mainly been upgrading science, but doing just enough lockpick to get it up probably 50 eventually (it's around 30 now). Also I've been putting a surprising # of points into melee weapons. My next character I think I'm going to make a ninja with a lot of melee weapons/sneak points.

I'm new to these kinds of games, so forgive the possibly dumb question...

If I just walk around one area, killing as many people as I can over and over, will I eventually be able to max out all of my SPECIAL stats and perks? Or do games like this specifically prohibit that sort of thing?

So far, I'm liking the game quite a bit... even if I really suck at it!

Although you can use this strategy in other games, Fallout's enemies don't respawn so it won't work. Once you clear out an area in Fallout, those enemies are gone for good (unless you trigger some event later in the game that brings new enemies to that area).


Edited to fix the quote.

As far as S.P.E.C.I.A.L goes, it's only what you start with, and I believe there is a perk that will instantly increase one of the stats by one.

There is no feeling like seeing a Raider or Mercenary some distance away, and aiming for the head with a 3% chance to hit, and seeing the slow motion of the bullet fly through the air and tear their head off.

Or miss completely

You can't max out your perks because there's a level 20 cap.

Sorry if this has been covered before but, is this game first person only or can you do third person?

3rd person is available. I believe left bumper changes the view on the default controls.

There is a third person view, but I find it kind of clunky. I'm playing on PC though. It might work better on the consoles.